Same here, I'm in a ~90K town on the outskirts of the Bay Area, and there is a proposal to build a handful of "affordable apartments" in the downtown area. I get the feeling that most people are apathetic, maybe slightly for it, since more housing is probably, in the balance, good for the Bay Area. But, man, the few people against it are really against it, they are organized, retired (so they have infinite time to fight it), have seemingly infinite funds, and are really, really angry. If you just looked at the surface, you'd think it was a huge angry mob. But, it's actually the same tiny group of people writing their letters to the local paper and attending the council meetings over and over. They are very good at projecting strength and amplifying their message through various media. If I was actually passionate about building affordable housing, I would definitely burn out and get cynical, having to face this every time.

It works exactly like this all the way up from local through to federal politics. We Can't Have Nice Things in democracies, because of a small number of people willing to commit their entire souls, lives and money to some niche cause that's a net-bad, and they won't quit, even after losing 50 times. All it takes is that 51st time, and they'll definitely be at the fight.